Necromorphs
The Necromorphs are a polymorphic alien species that infect dead bodies for use as their own. They serve as the antagonists of Dead Space. The Necromorphs are the horribly mutated, reanimated corpses of men and women. The creatures are extrordianrily agressive, and will attempt to kill virtually any non-necromorph creature on sight. The sole purpose of almost all Necromorphs is to create more bodies to infect, while the role of one particular creature, the Infector is to infect corpses to make more Necromorphs. Transformation Once infected, the transformation of a dead body into a Necromorph is extremely quick, typically happening in a matter of seconds (the transformation actually occurs in exactly 10 seconds, according to the game producers). This transformation is extremely violent and distubing for observers. The body of the Necromorph host is forced into new twisted shapes to fit the function of the newly spawned creature. The actual type of Necromorph created stems entirely on the location and circumstances, as well as the host body's current form. For example, Lurkers are created from any infant human. There seems to be some kind of hierarchy within the Necromorph species. However, what that happens to be is completely unknown, though this all may be determined by The Hive Mind. The bacteria responsible for the infection is also referred to as 'The Corruption' in background logs. All Necromorphs are extremely hardy and capable of surviving in lethal environments no human without appropriate protection could even venture into, such as the vacuum of space. Types of Necromorphs There are several types of Necromorphs in both Dead Space the game and Dead Space:Downfall the movie. There are exactly 17 types of Necromorphs(18 if you count the Grabber but since it was cut from both the movie and game, it doesn't really count). The types of Necromorhps are listed below: *Brutes *Dividers *Drag Tentacles *Exploders *Guardians *Infectors *Leapers *Lurkers *Pregnants *Slashers *Swarmers *The Hive Mind *The Hunter *The Leviathan *The Slug *Twitchers *Wheezers Origin The DNA patterns covering the surface of the Black and Red Markers are the codes for the Necromorph infection. Noted in the logs as a "recombinant life form". According to data logs the first known Necromorph infection was during the reverse engineering project of the Black Marker subsequently creating the Red Marker. The Aegis 7 doctors copied and recreated the lifeform using the RNA patterns listed on the Markers, resulting in the creation of the lifeform. Initially the "recombinant life form" existed only in a petri dish and remained dormant (what exactly the lifeform resembled is unknown). The lifeform didn't react to any of the doctor's tests, and was about to be deemed a failure. However, one day, a doctor didn't fully decontaminate himself when entering the lab, and a few dead skin cells fell into the petri dish. As such, the infection by the recombinant lifeform immediately activated and reanimated the dead skin cells (what the skin cells reanimated into isn't detailed). Soon afterward, a similar accident resulted in the deaths of two doctors; and immediately after dying, the two doctors transformed into the very first Necromorphs (one doctor became a Leaper, the other an Infector). This was when the colony disaster began. The Leaper and Infector were contained, but the Leaper found and broke through a nearby ventilation shaft, breaching the colony. It began to the other doctors, which the Infector transformed, and the colony infection began. The Red Marker actually inhibited the necrotic flesh testing and it was then that the scientists noticed that it produced an apparent "Dead Space" inhibiting the Necromorph infection from spreading. It is presumed that after the initial catastrophe began on Aegis 7 that they somehow expanded the projection of the Dead Space field to contain the Necromorph Hive Mind and all infection present on the planet. There are two unique Necromorphs, the Leviathan and the Slug, both of which are large and grotesque blobs of flesh, which utilizes their tentacles to attack. How they're created and from what is unknown, but they may be independent organisms or an extreme offshot of the Brute Necromorph (i.e made from combining several crewman corpses). There is a low probability that the necromorph virus is a natural occurrence, but there is a higher probability that the virus was created by or is the race that created the Black Marker Trivia The Necromorph creature designs were partly inspired by John Carpenter's The Thing, while the story of the Black Marker seems to have been based on the movie Species.